Combined toy gun and aerial launching device



Jan. 30, 1968 P. LIM 3,365,836

COMBINED TOY GUN AND AERIAL LAUNCHING DEVICE Filed April 16, 1965 2 Sheets-sheet 1 INVENTOR PETER L/M HTTORNE Y Jan. 30, 1968 P. UM 3,365,836

COMBINED TOY GUN AND AERIAL LAUNCHING DEVICE Filed April 16, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR PETER L/M A TTORNEY United States Patent 3,365,836 COMBINED TOY GUN AND AERIAL LAUNCHING DEVICE Peter Lim, 4116 Mt. Vernon Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90008 Filed Apr. 16, 1965, Ser. No. 448,645 11 Claims. (Cl. 46-86) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention provides in a single compact unit, a toy hand gun enabling a projectile such as a dart and a parachute collapsed in a lunching support on the gun to be simultaneously discharged upwardly into the air by a trigger-controlled spring, with the parachute being detachably connected to the projectile in a manner to be carried aloft by the projectile and then automatically released therefrom at the top of the flight so as to float free and provide an aerial target to be shot at during its descent by another projectile loaded into the gun.

This invention relates generally to toys and more particularly to toy guns for shooting various types of projectiles.

An object of this invention is to provide a toy gun embodying means for supporting an element to be launched, such as a parachute, simulated missile or satellite in a manner to operatively connect same to a projectile which, when discharged by the gun into the air, is utilized to carry the element aloft and release it for use as a target to be shot at with other projectiles during the descent of the element, all to the end of providing a highly interesting pastime as well as enabling the user to obtain practice in an effort to improve his marksmanship.

Another object of this invention is to provide a toy gun of the above described character which may be permanently or detachably equipped with supporting or sustaining means enabling a single element or a plurality of such elements to be suspended and carried aloft by a projectile such as a dart, for example, when discharged from the gun, with the gun being capable of use as a projecting device for shooting darts or other types of missiles at a target.

With these and other objects in view, this invention resides in the combinations, arrangements and functional relationships of elements as set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings,

FIGURE 1 is a View showing in longitudinal axial section, a toy gun equipped with a permanent supporting means from which a single element is carried aloft by the projectile;

FIGURE 2 is a view in rear end elevation of the toy gun equipped as shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a View on a reduced scale, showing the toy gun in side elevation and partly in section, and illustrating one method of manipulating a buoyant element such as a parachute to operatively associate it with the gun and a projectile when in position to be discharged from the gun;

FIGURE 4 is side elevational view of a buoyant element in the form of a para-chute after having been carried aloft and released from the projectile;

FIGURE 5 is a plan view of the toy gun equipped with detachable supporting means from which a plurality of elements to be launched, are adapted to be carried aloft by the projectile;

FIGURE 6 is a view in rear end elevation of the toy gun shown in FIGURE 5;

3,365,836 Patented Jan. 30, 1968 FIGURE 7 is a view similar to FIGURE 6 and illustrating a second form of detachable supporting means for a plurality of elements to be launched; and

FIGURE 8 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view similar to FIGURE 1 and illustrating a third form of supporting means from which a single element is adapted to be launched by the projectile.

Referring specifically to the drawings and particularly to FIGURES l to 4, inclusive, a toy gun G embodying this invention is composed of a main frame 10 having a barrel 11 fixed therein and a hand grip 12 from which extends the guard 13 of a trigger 14 pivoted on a pin 15 in the frame. The trigger 14 is extended rearwardly of the pin 15 and formed to provide a permanent connection at 16 with one end of a coil spring 17 which is freely received in the bore 18 of the barrel 11. The trigger 14 is also extended forwardly of the pin 15 and formed to provide a latching abutment or shoulder 19.

A projectile in the form of a dart D is provided with a suction cup 20 fastened to one end of a shaft 21 freely slidable in the barrel 11 and provided at its other end with a head 22 abutting the free end of the spring 17 to compress the latter in the barrel as the dart is pushed into the barrel until the shoulder 19 of the trigger 14 snaps into latching engagement with the head 22 under the urging action of the spring 17 as shown in FIGURE 1, so as to maintain the gun in cocked position.

Projecting from the top of the main frame 10 is a supporting or sustaining means in the form of a relatively large diameter open ended tube 25 the bore 26 of which extends in parallelism with the bore 18 of the barrel 11. The tube 25 is adapted to freely receive a collapsed parachute or other form of element P to be launched, which is adapted to be suspended from the dart D by means of a hook 31 projecting laterally from the shaft 21 of the dart. For co-action with the hook 31, the envelope 32 of the parachute is provided with an eye or loop 33 freely receiving the hook and connected to the top center of the envelope by a flexible member or leader such as a short length of cord 33.

Secured to the perimeter of the envelope 32 at equally spaced locations are the upper ends of shroud lines 34, the lower ends of which are secured to a lightly weighted body 35 in the form of a ring loosely fitting the bore 26 so as to be confined in the lower end of the tube 25 and exert suflicient pulling force upon the lines 34 and the envelope 32 to maintain the parachute fully collapsed when the parachute is suspended by the eye 33 from the hook 31 of the dart D.

In order to facilitate and expedite application of the parachute P to the tube 25, a tool T such as a rod having a hook 41 on one end and being of a length in excess of the length of the tube, may be inserted into the tube from the upper end of the latter so as to project from the lower end of the tube, followed by engagement of the eye 33 of the envelope 32 with the hook 41 as shown in FIGURE 2, and pulling of the parachute into the tube until the upper end of the envelope can be grasped. The eye 33 is now transferred from the hook 41 of the tool T to the hook 31 of the dart D so as to suspend the parachute from the latter as shown in FIG- URE 1.

The eye 33 of the parachute and the hook 31 of the dart broadly constitute a releasable operative connection between the parachute and dart by which the latter, when projected from the barrel 11 by the spring 17 upon pulling the trigger 14 with the gun pointed upwardly, will launch the parachute and carry it aloft. When the dart reaches the top of its flight, and starts its descent, the buoyancy of the aprachute as the envelope 32 commences to open, will retard its descent sufficiently for the eye 33 to disengage the hook 31 of the more rapidly descending dart.

As the parachute when fully open, descends relatively slowly, it can be used as a target, sufficient time being available to reload the gun with another dart and discharge the dart at the parachute, thus providing practice in marksmanship.

Referring now to FIGURES 5 and 6, the toy gun G embodies a second form of this invention for supporting a plurality of elements in the form of parachutes P and P2 which are identical in construction and of the same construction as the parachute P with the exception that the weighted body 35 of the latter is in the form of a nose cone as indicated by 35a and 35b. The parachutes as collapsed as shown in FIGURE 5, are adapted to be received in dual supporting or sustaining means S in the form of open ended tubes a and 25b which are detachably mounted on the gun G at opposite sides thereof by being snapped into pairs of spring clips 50a and 5%, respectively, secured to the gun by fastening members 51a and 51b, so as to dispose the tubes in parallelism with the gun barrel.

The dart D is provided with diametrically opposed laterally projecting hooks 31a and 31b which are adapted to freely receive the eyes 33a and 33b of the respective parachutes P and P2 to suspend the latter from the hooks for simultaneous launching by the dart D in the same manner as previously described in connection with the first form of the invention.

The tubes 25a and 25b are split longitudinally to provide relatively narrow slots 52a and 52b respectively, through which the cords 33 can be drawn to pull the collapsed parachutes into the tubes from the bottom ends thereof and upwardly therein a sufficient amount for the nose cones a and 35b to be received in the tubes and the eyes 33a and 3312 connected to the respective hooks 31a and 31b, to the end of dispensing with the tool T.

Reference will now be held to FIGURE 7 which illustrates a second form of dual supporting means S2 for a plurality of parachutes, which comprises a one-piece body 60 of spring metal or flexible plastic shaped to provide open end launching tubes 25c and 25d projecting from opposite sides of an inverted U-shaped attaching portion 61 adapted to be sprung over the barrel of the gun G2 for co-action of shoulders 62 and 62a on the portion 61 with projecting ribs 63 and 63a respectively, on opposite sides of the gun frame 100 in detachably securing the supporting means S2 to the gun.

Reference will now be had to FIGURE 8 which illustrates a third form of supporting means S3 for a single parachute P3 identical in construction to the parachute P, which is adapted to be suspended from the supporting means by a dart D2 also of the same construction as the dart D. The support S3 is composed of a bracket 7 0 forming a seat for the rin shaped weighted body 35d, which bracket projects upwardly from the frame 10d of the gun G3. A rod 71 is supported by the bracket 70 so as to be disposed in longitudinal relation to the length of the barrel 11d and is spaced sufliciently therefrom to enter and confine against lateral displacement the envelope 32d of the parachute P3 when suspended from the hook 31d of the dart D2 by the eye 33d of the enevlope, all as clearly shown in FIGURE 8. As the operation of this form of the invention is the same as that previously described, further description will be dispensed with.

I claim:

1. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon pulling the trigger; and means on said gun adapted to support an element to be launched, exteriorly of the gun; said projectile having means adapted to operatively connect said element releasably to the projectile for launching by the latter upon its discharge upwardly from the barrel.

2. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon ulling the trigger; a buoyant element to be launched; means on said gun supporting said element; and means on said projectile and said element defining an automatically releasable operative connection by which the element will be carried aloft by the projectile upon discharge of the latter upwardly from the barrel and will float free of the projectile during descending movement thereof.

3. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon puliing the trigger; a bouyant element to be launched; means on said gun supporting said element; said projectile having a laterally projecting portion defining a hook; said element having means defining an eye receiving said hook for co-action therewith in carrying said element aloft during ascending movement of the projectile and enabling the element to float free of the projectile after the latter reaches the top of its flight.

4. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable in the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon pulling the trigger; a collapsible buoyant element; means on said gun supporting said element in collapsed position; said projectile and said element having co-aeting means by which the element will be carried aloft by the projectile upon its discharge upwardly from the barrel and will be free to float clear of the projectile after the latter reaches the top of its flight.

5. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable in the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon pulling the trigger; an open-ended launching tube on said gun, laterally offset from said barrel and in parallelism therewith; a collapsible buoyant element insertable in a collapsed position into said tube; said projectile and said element having co-acting means defining an automatically releasable operative connection by which the element will be suspended in said tube by the projectile and will be carried aloft by the latter when discharged upwardly from the barrel to float free of the projectile after the latter reaches the top of its flight.

6. The combination as embodied in claim 5 including a tool insertable through said tube and having means engageable with said element to draw the latter into said tube for connection to said projectile.

7. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected thereby from the barrel upon pulling the trigger; a launching tube on said gun laterally offset from said barrel and in parallelism therewith; a parachute insertable in a collapsed position into said tube; said projectile having an upwardly opening hook; said parachute having an eye centrally located on the envelope thereof, receiving said hook so as to enable the parachute to be carried aloft by the projectile when discharged upwardly from the gun and to float free of the projectile by disengagement of said eye from said hook after the projectile reaches the top of its flight.

8. The combination as embodied in claim 7 including a tool insertable through said tube and having a hook engageable with said eye of the parachute to draw the latter into the tube followed by transfer of the eye to said hook of the parachute to suspend the parachute in the tube.

A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected thereby from the barrel upon pulling the trigger; an open-ended launching tube on said gun laterally offset from said barrel and in parallelism therewith; said tube being split longitudinally to provide a slot; a collapsible buoyant element having a member passable through said slot to install said element collapsed in the tube; said projectile and said element having co-acting means by which the element can be suspended in said tube by the projectile and will be carried aloft by the latter when discharged upwardly from the barrel to float free of the projectile after reaching the top of its flight.

10. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled mechanism for discharging a projectile from the barrel upon actuation of the trigger; a pin support on said gun; a collapsed parachute confined by said pin against lateral displacement when suspended from the projectile; and means releasably connecting the parachute to the projectile for launching by the projectile when discharged upwardly from the barrel.

11. A device of the class described comprising: a toy gun having a barrel and trigger-controlled projecting means; a projectile insertable into the barrel for co-action with said means in being projected from the barrel upon actuation of the trigger; a collapsible buoyant element to be launched; means on said gun supporting said element in a collapsed position alongside said barrel; said projectile and element having interengaging means defining an automatically releasable connection therebetween operable during ascending movement of the projectile to carry the element aloft and then release the element to float free of the projectile after the latter reaches the top of its flight.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 723,227 3/1903 Anthony 12427 807,977 12/1905 Van Vleet 46-86 2,633,119 3/1953 Bauderer et a1. 4686 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner.

20 F. BARRY SHAY, Examiner.

R. F. CUTTING, Assistant Examiner. 

